Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: "Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <bss03@××××××××××.net>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Printer Sharing with Samba
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 03:15:30
Message-Id: 200603082106.52581.bss03@volumehost.net
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] Printer Sharing with Samba by Kris Kerwin
1 On Wednesday 08 March 2006 20:28, Kris Kerwin <kkerwin@×××××××××.com> wrote
2 about '[gentoo-user] Printer Sharing with Samba':
3 > First off, I have a laptop with only one ethernet port, so setting up
4 > an ad hoc network between us is out of the question. Also, my school
5 > has a "one port - one computer" rule that prohibits routers.
6
7 That doesn't prohibit routers, it encourages them; routers add to the
8 number of ports in your room. ;) That rule just prohibits calculators,
9 PDAs, cell phones, portable gaming devices, game consoles, moderm
10 microwave ovens, modern televisions, some watches, etc., etc. (since they
11 are [or contain] computers) from the room.
12
13 Real solutions:
14 (1) Get a wireless AP and connect both computers to it. It doesn't have to
15 have or use a port.
16 (2) Break the rules, they are stupid.
17 (a) Generally speaking, students in dorms have an expectation of privacy
18 so they can't (for example) search your room when you are gone.
19 (b) A properly configured router doesn't look any different from a
20 single computer network-wise. You can do MAC duplication/spoofing if you
21 had to register that with Computing Services.
22
23 > Second, since we're both behind a DHCPd server, we both have dynamic
24 > IPs. There's no easy way to point his computer to the right server if
25 > it has a dynamic IP.
26
27 Does it work like DNSmasq so that it does caching and local DNS? Maybe you
28 can just have the gentoo machine request a certain domain name and have
29 the windows machine use that. Heck, my school allowed student to have
30 entries in the school's DNS, as log as the school wasn't using it so you
31 might see if that's an option.
32
33 > Third, since we're both behind a router, using something like DynDNS
34 > to provide a static contact despite the dynamic IP won't work either.
35
36 Sure it does. My computer was behind a router for nearly a year and ssh or
37 whatever worked fine. Do you get site-local IPs (10.0.0.0/8,
38 192.168.0.0/16, or 176.0.0.0/8) or real IPs? With real IPs you are set on
39 that front. With site-local, DynDNS would be doing the 'Net a favor to
40 disallow them being registered, but you could try anyway.
41
42 In either case, does the router filter any ports? That would be the big
43 stumbling block, but if you find a single one that is open you could run
44 cups (or what have you) on it. If there's fewer ports open than you need,
45 ssh tunnels can do SOCKS proxying and, IIRC, there's even kernel patches
46 to force all connections through a SOCKS proxy. (Heck, you don't really
47 need kernel patches if you can write C and know how to use the LD_PRELOAD
48 thingy.)
49
50 Finally, depending on how the router is set up, you may be able to do peer
51 discovery through ARP or mDNS.
52
53 > So, I guess what I'm wondering is if there's any way to make this
54 > work, or if I'm SOL?
55
56 I doubt you are SOL, but it might take more work and /research/ than you
57 are willing to put into it.
58
59 --
60 "If there's one thing we've established over the years,
61 it's that the vast majority of our users don't have the slightest
62 clue what's best for them in terms of package stability."
63 -- Gentoo Developer Ciaran McCreesh
64 --
65 gentoo-user@g.o mailing list